Organic material is often collected and packaged into bales to ease transport and storage. Bales can be formed in any of a variety of different sizes and shapes including round, square and rectangular shapes. Material that is commonly baled includes cornstalks, grass, dried grass (hay), straw, above-ground corn residue (corn stalks, leaves, husks, and cobs), etc. To secure the material in the form of a bale, a binding is used to ensure that the bale does not inadvertently deconstruct. Types of binding include twine, plastic wrap, netting, wire, etc. When access to the material that is baled is desired, the binding must be removed from the bale, which can be difficult.
Binding removal can be completed by hand by cutting the binding with a knife and then peeling the binding off of the bale by manually pulling it from the bale. Because the bale is typically resting on a surface during this process, the person must roll, lift, or maneuver around the bale to remove the binding from underneath the bale.
Mechanical removal of the binding has included grabbing the binding with a machine to remove it from the bale. However, complete removal of the binding from the bale is often difficult to attain, as, for example, the binding can tear prior to being completely removed and/or the machine may fail to secure all of the binding for successful removal. This difficulty with the binding removal step can lead to a time consuming and cumbersome process.
Additionally, bale processing equipment is available to promote bale deconstruction. Many such bale processing units are stand-alone machines. However, for larger-scale processing bales (such as for biomass), it is desired to have a more efficient apparatus that can be used as part of a high through-put system.
Therefore, improvements in the processing and mechanical removal of binding from bales and concurrent processing of such bales are needed.